Sex Abuse and Clericalism – Again!

It is hard to understand how Pope Francis can both condemn clericalism and override the American bishops’ attempt to establish a lay review board to oversee their own actions on sex abuse. Or appoint Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to organize the world meeting on abuse prevention in February as part of a new role in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Maybe the bishops’ proposals were “amateurish,” as Michael Sean Winters argues in NCR.  But the three actions were a signal that they recognized how damaging their evasions of responsibility have been, for years.

Maybe Scicluna has been terrific in dealing with abuse crises in Chile and the Legionnaires of Christ without blaming gay priests, but his appointment indicates to me Francis’ reliance on a trusted colleague rather than taking full charge himself. If not clericalism, cronyism.

Did Francis need to slow down the American actions to prepare the way for more major changes, soon to come? European sources seem to think so. Robert Mickens, writing from Rome, argues that Francis “wants to decentralize decision-making authority in the Church. And that means many Vatican offices — especially the congregations that have traditionally acted as minders of the local dioceses, Church institutions and Catholic individuals around the world — are likely to lose real power.”

That power seems to be what was just asserted over the American bishops – a last hurrah? Decentralization not ready for prime time? Mickens titles his article “The Calm Before the Storm,” which may anticipate the curial tsunami that will result from the  new apostolic constitution changing the structure of Vatican government, which he says is coming by March. He believes this document may unlink ordination and authority in a reformed curia. We will be watching for good news for women’s leadership, if not for women priests.

In focusing on Rome, Mikens ignores the tornado roiling the United States. Many witnesses had gathered in Baltimore to ask for change, from a parish busload from Philadelphia to the Catholic Organizations for Renewal, who endorsed the “5 Theses” statement developed by a group of concerned Catholics. But the Vatican derailed all this. SNAP activist David Clohessy told the bishops that there is a lot they can do on their own, but the momentum was gone. The headline of NCR’s summary article proclaimed that the Bishops had settled “for a metaphor.” How dismissive.

I could tell you that the Bishops in France and Great Britain are further behind than the United States in addressing sex abuse. France just appointed a commission of inquiry headed by a rather charming and newly-retired vice-president of the Council of State. England and Wales are reviewing their procedures again. 

But I want to tell you about a truth-telling article in the Boston Globe by Helen Drinan. 

Drinan, now president of Simmons, writes about her 2006 experience as head of human resources for Caritas Christi, the Catholic hospital system in the Boston Archdiocese. Complaints of sexual harassment against the Caritas CEO, Robert M. Haddad, were brought to her.

Based on evidence from the investigation and my decades of professional experience, I knew unequivocally that Haddad must be terminated. I shared that recommendation directly with the cardinal [Sean O’Malley]… Concerned the board would be making the wrong decision, I e-mailed members warning them the church could not afford to “once again put the powerful predator ahead of the powerless victim.”

The cardinal decided that the credible claims of harassment — even against one who held power over his victims — were not serious enough to justify termination. He opted to reprimand Haddad, warning him that another harassment charge or retaliatory action would lead to termination.

When news of this decision came out in The Boston Globe, the floodgates opened. Current and former Caritas employees came forward to report their similar treatment by Haddad, and the complaints were simply too serious and too numerous for the church to ignore.

Shortly after the newspaper exposed the archdiocese’s failings, I was asked to attend a meeting convened by the archdiocese to decide Haddad’s fate. I remember it as a David and Goliath moment, sitting in a room full of men, including the cardinal and some of Boston’s best legal minds.

The lawyers insisted my judgment had been erroneous, and that termination was a draconian response to harassment. I held fast to my recommendation. Later that night I learned on the radio that Haddad had been forced to resign. He has denied acting inappropriately. 

Note that despite the Cardinal’s threat that Haddad would be fired if there were additional complaints, it was hard to convince “the best legal minds” that dismissal was appropriate. Drinan goes on to acknowledge that, twelve years later, #MeToo and #TimesUp have changed “the secular world.” Have they changed the church?

O’Malley is strangely absent from the million articles I have read about the USCCB meeting, except for this one. Bad enough that it came out this year that O’Malley had gotten caught not reading a 2015 complaint about Cardinal McCarrick; it had not been passed on by his secretary. Worse that it is O’Malley who the Pope chose in 2014 to serve as the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which has seen its survivor members resign and is very much under the radar right now. Drinan goes on:

My professional experience in the secular world has taught me about navigating male-dominated organizations. I understand male bonding, “the old boy network,”institutionalized misogyny, and hierarchical leadership.

The church features all these intransigent attributes, combined with the vows of celibacy and obedience. While sacred in their intent, the human experience of this mix has too often been toxic, permitting the victimization of the disempowered, including women, children, and seminarians. 

I spent some time in management of organizations, certainly smaller than the Archdiocese of Boston, not to mention than the whole Catholic Church. Drinan puts names on what actually happens and the results that have been magnified here.

Drinan identifies herself as “a life-long Catholic,” and considers the future:

As a dwindling community of faith, how should we move forward? … Change the organizationa lstructure by splitting the leadership of the archdiocese into two separate missions. Let the innocent clergy, of whom there are so many, continue to honor their vocations and do the work of “spiritual conversion,” and surrender to the laity the work of “legal transparency and pastoral accountability.” If the religious hierarchy had had the capacity and will to solve this enormous problem, surely they would have done so by now.

This structure would also provide a path for women to play a full role in the day-to- day life of the church, a move which has consistently improved the overall performance of other large organizations. 

Drinan is realistic not only about the “dwindling” church, but also about women’s experience of leadership that the church is so sorely missing. She’d be a good choice when women become cardinals.